![]() ![]() It may play loosely with the Gothic building blocks constructed by Radcliffe, Lewis, and Bürger, but the conclusion is no farce: it teems with apt irony and chilling details reminiscent of the best ghost stories of M.R. ![]() ![]() This is the critical thesis of Poe’s horror, and it permeates the volatile relationship between the brash playboy Baron Metzengerstein and his aged and (supposedly) cursed counterpart. What should be buried does not remain buried – what is hidden from society will be first internally resurrected, then publically exposed. And yet the building blocks of “Usher,” “Ligeia,” “Hop-Frog,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Black Cat” brew in this Germanic romance. A few scholars have categorized it as a Gothic farce – possibly a literary joke presaging the satires of Twain and Bierce. Subtitled “An Imitation of the German,” this, the earliest of Poe’s supernatural tales, builds a unique atmosphere on a foundation of Gothic conventions: a hereditary feud between two ancient families, a gloom-drenched castle, a cryptic curse, and vaguely sinister machinations. ![]()
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